A Light to the World

June 29, 2015

Thanks for the food!

I hope these last weeks of my mission will be the same as this week was; Full of work, miracles and laughter. I love the mission so much and I am starting to arrive in panic mode, because I want to go home real bad, but at the same time I want to stay here and continue the work that I am able to do. But I know that all great things must come to an end and that life has more plans and adventures to send my way. We were able to find a lot of people this week that are super willing to listen to our message. We have seen miracles working here in Padre Bernardo!

We are teaching a whole lot of women, and not that that is a bad thing but we want to have a balance of women and men at church with us. So this week we did a fast so that the Lord would help us find the men here that are ready and willing to follow the Savior. And boy, were our prayers answered! We are teaching a young man that is really smart. He loves to read and stopped us on the street and told us that a couple years ago he lived in another city and the missionaries went to his house a couple times but he didn’t really remember what they taught him. We went to go visit him and he showed us a book that he had read when he was 15. It was the “Teachings of President Brigham Young”.... yupp, when he was 15 he read the whole book. He even remembered a lot of what was written! He had a lot of questions which we answered teaching him about the restoration. We told him to pray and read about what we told him. A few days later we returned to his house, and He told us that he had been waiting to talk to us for the whole day.... he even wanted to go to the gym 6 AM because he knew that we would be there exercising. He told us that when he woke up he had a clear answer and that he believed that what we told him is true and that he would like to continue to learn more! We have also been helping another man who went to church for almost a year in another state but when he moved here there was no church and he wasn’t baptized.  He loves the church and its teachings and we are helping him prepare to be baptized too! God is the true missionary and I know we are just here to find the people that he is preparing and has already prepared.

This last weekend we had to teach in the dark a whole lot because the city had two power outages... It was fun to work so in the moonlight but it was also a little harder because nobody is on the roads when there is no power... because its dark... haha but some of our best lessons and visits were in the dark with a single light to help us see. How could a missionary not think of Christ and how He is the light of the world. Without Him, there is no light in our lives, there is no happiness and boy, a city without light is a sad sight... and where does everyone go? To the houses or places that have a lot of people and a lot of light. Because we are comforted by the light, we are attracted to it. Like Christ. I am so grateful for the light that I have and the time I have had to share it with others!

Missionary Meals

Padre Bernardo is becoming another home for me. We have made such great relationships here and I truly love the people here. We have gotten to be great friends with our only member family that when we eat with them, it is just laughs and laughs and laughs. Our recent converts are starting to feed us too and it is always so much fun! The work is progressing really well here and we are finding people that will be the rocks of the church here in the future. Please continue to pray for us and the people we are teaching. There are a lot that are ready to be baptized but just have a little problem or two to resolve before they can enter the water! I love this work and this church. Thank you so much for the love and support!!

-Elder Clark

The Beginning of the End

June 22, 2015

Still Companions!

Today is official the first day of my last transfer of my mission. Can you believe that? Because I sure cannot!! This transfer will be the best of my mission I know it. We went to transfer meeting today and Elder Nascimento and I stayed together for our 3rd transfer together! I think he is getting a little sick of me but at least he will be able to kill me (It’s a missionary thing - to call a missionary who is returning to his home as ``Dying`` and his companion who is with him is the companion who ``Killed`` the missionary who died, haha) He is excited for that. But I don’t think it’s helping him very much because he only has 5 months on the mission! But after 2 transfers together we know how to work together and we are going to work until our shoes fall off… because my shoes are literally dying too...

This week was a normal week of working. We have a family that we have been working with for a long time now that has grown really close to us. We are trying to help them stop bad habits and the parents to get married so that everyone can get baptized. They love the church and participate in every activity that we do. They will make such great members when they are baptized and will contribute a whole lot to the growth of the church. The dad isn’t very interested but the mom and her 5 kids are preparing to be baptized! I sure hope I will be able to witness their baptisms before I head home.

Brasilia

We found some people this week that are amazing! They have amazing stories and amazing personalities! We started teaching a lot of people this week that seem like they have a lot of potential! I hope that this week we can follow up with them and have a lot of success with them. The work here is so much... work! But I am loving every minute of it!

Baptism

This week we had the baptism of a man named Raimundo (Hi-moon-doh) and boy, this is man is probably the most simple man I have ever met. But also one of the best men I have ever met too. He has so much faith and just wants to do what is right. Talk about a man who is in tuned with the spirit. He is the perfect example of broken heart and a contrite spirit. His life will be changed forever because of the gospel.

We also found a woman who was baptized over 20 years ago, really it was her that found us, we were walking on the street and she yelled to us “Are you two Elder??” Of course we said yes and went to talk to her! She was baptized more than 20 years ago but shortly after her baptism she moved here and lost contact with the church! She is now married and has a family! She didn’t remember a whole lot about the teachings of the church but she told us that she never started going to another church. This week will visit her to meet her husband and her children. We are super excited for her because it looks like we will have one more family coming to church with us.

God is great and loves each of his children! I love being his servant! I love all of you! Thanks for everything!

Elder Clark

Lives Changing

June 15, 2015

I love this gospel and the blessings that it brings to anybody that embraces it. We have had seen miracles in the lives of the people we are working with. Shirley who was baptized last week with her daughter is amazing! After her baptism she has become a different woman! Her biggest worry about the church was that she would have to do everything alone because her husband and her other children were not very interested in our messages or the church. but she had faith and went ahead with what she believed was right and now the rest of her family is seeing the happiness and the difference in her life in just two weeks, and now her oldest daughter and husband have a baptismal date too! Every time we visit this family, we can see the difference the gospel in making in their lives, and all the sweat, tears, and lack of sleep become worth it just to see these blessings in the lives of others.

Nativa, who was baptized 3 weeks ago is having a lot of difficulties in her life right now, but she always tells us that it is different this time; That she is facing these problems with more faith, less fear and that she has been more patient, because before she acted irrationally to some things but now, she is calmer and able to handle the things that are thrown at her. I have no doubt that this is an effect of the gospel! I love being able to hear these stories and feel the happiness that others are gaining!

We have been working and working and it seems that we have the base of the church here settled. We have 5 families that are going to church regularly now, each family started with just one member of the family coming to church but now each family has most of not all of the members coming to church! We are very excited because the people that we have are very special, and have just been waiting for the gospel in their lives, and now they have found it!! We hope that threw these families, we will be able to find more and more and that the church will just continue to grow! Everyone that is going to church is preparing to be baptized but the thing is that almost each one has something that we need to work out before they will be able to make this passage in their lives.

Elders

We went fishing again this morning... it wasn’t for piranha but it was still super neat! I was able to catch 3 fish on my bamboo fishing rod!

Companions

I love this Gospel. It is so simple but yet so eloquent. I don’t ever want to stop learning and progressing in it. I love everything about it, I am so grateful for my mission and everything that I have learned. There is no place I would rather be then where my Savior wants me to be. Next week is the start of my last transfer. I can’t believe it has finally come. This last transfer will be the best transfer of my mission! And then it is all over. 

Thank you for everything, I love each and every one of you!

Elder Clark

Meet The Mormons!

June 8, 2015

Showing "Meet the Mormons"

This week was a successful week! We worked hard and had a lot of fun too! We had a special activity that happened this week. We did a movie theater/drive in on the main square of the city. The movie “Meet The Mormons” just came out in Portuguese and we came up with the idea to show the city this movie so that people could.. well.. meet the Mormons! We set up a projector and screen in the middle of the main park. We invited the members in Brazlandia (Our closest ward) and about 30 members and 6 more missionaries came a few hours early. Then we stormed the streets, invited everyone to come and watch. We the sun went down we played a few Mormon messages before the movie started. The activity was a big success, few people stayed and watched the whole movie, but during the movie a ton of people passed by watching a little and we were able to make contacts with them and explain to them that the church that we represent isn’t just a church in this small town but worldwide! It was a great way to show the city who we are and it was so cool to have so many members helping us! ("Meet the Mormons" is available on Netflix)

Padre Bernardo Pioneers

We had 2 more baptisms this week! Shirley and Bruna, mom and daughter! We have been working with them since our second week here and Shirley has read almost all of the Book of Mormon! Bruna is 11 and super smart. Shirley is real special, she would have been baptized sooner but she wanted to be absolutely sure that she would baptize and stay in the church and not just quit when it got hard! She is married but her husband has some things to take care of but he told us after the baptism, “I’m going to be the next one to be baptized!” Which is funny because we found her older daughter on the street after the baptism and she told us too, that she´ll be the next one baptized! So, we are going to have a race in this family! Her cousin is being taught by the other Elders and she and her husband will be baptized next month after their wedding! We have finally found our pioneer family! They are a huge family that is going to bring lots of family members to the church too!

The church is growing slowly but it’s growing! We are working hard but it’s been pretty difficult! But, I love it. I just hope it can start picking up here soon! We are teaching a huge group of people, but the amount that are understanding and wanting to learn more is pretty small. This week in my studies I had a lot of answers come to questions I had because of this area, I am so grateful for the scriptures that we have and the time we have to study them too! I had a real neat experience that an investigator asked one of the same questions I had and I was able to speak clearly the answer, and while I was explaining, I understood the answer better too, and that was the Holy Ghost teaching me, while I was teaching someone else. The gospel is amazing and full of miracles. This was a successful in in all aspects! I love the work and I love the mission. I hope that I can finish these last few weeks running and seeing even more success.

Soccer Feet

Thanks for all the love and support, I love you all and can’t wait to see everyone!

Elder Clark

Transformation

Jun 1, 2015

Baptism!

This week was a very special week. This week was a week that I could see and feel the change that is happening in the lives of so many here in Padre Bernardo. I love being able to see the gospel working miracles and changing lives. The first of this week was our 1st baptism here! Her name is Nativa and

Baptism in a River

literally we met her our first day here. We have been working with her and her family for all his time and she finally had the desire to be baptized! She is super special and has a very sweet spirit. She is very simple but a strong will. She has 4 kids who we are still working on to be baptized but they will soon follow for sure! She made history here in Padre Bernardo and it is amazing to watch her life change right before my eyes! We had a baptism service at a farm and I was able to baptize her in a river! Now, that was a neat experience! She is already taking us to her friends to teach them too. She is the first of many to come unto Christ here in Padre Bernardo! Remember her in your prayers.

We have another family here that has become dear friends of ours. They are learning and progressing a lot! Here in a small city, there is a lot of gossip and everyone talks about everyone... and so a lot of people talk about us, and they tell this family lots of things that I just not true. We had a super sweet lesson with them where they expressed their concerns and questions and we were able to respond so bearing our testimony. Carina (the mom) got real emotional and told us that she has already gone to many churches and always had doubts about the things they teach and say, but she said to us that “I know it’s true, I don’t have doubts here. I don’t know why, but there is no “if” about it, I don’t even know a lot about the church but I don’t have doubts.” Man, she is wonderful and has a wonderful family, the only problem is that we have to get her and her husband married. Here in Brazil, that takes at least a month to do all the paper work. But, we are very excited for them too!

This week Silo, our ``Dad`` here.... took us hiking... it was awful! There wasn’t a trail and we just starting climbing a mountain to look at vultures... he is a big nature guy and thinks they are beautiful… but I don’t think they are beautiful birds no.... aaannnddd I got stung by a bee, right on the lip... but it didn’t swell or anything so that was a good thing!

Elders and Friends

The other companionship is teaching a couple that just needs to be married and then they will be baptized! They are great and love to give us food. Yesterday we had a BBQ feast and I almost died because of all the food I ate and then I went to walk in the hot sun working... Think about something that is hard to do... but I am glad that today I have time to rest and recuperate.

This week we are starting Bible study and let’s see how that goes! We hope it will attract more people to just get to know who we are! We are trying anything and everything here to teach and help the church grow here. We are working hard, worn out but we are happy.

The work is moving here in Padre Bernardo! We are so happy here and love the work! We have met so many people and have made great friendships. The gospel is transforming the lives of our investigators, the one family of members here and the missionaries serving here. We are having the experience of a lifetime here.

Love,

Elder Clark

Living the Good Life

May 25, 2015

Padre Bernardo is just a dream! Life is so good and the work is going really well. I am tired beyond reason but I have so much energy at the same time. Elder Nascimento and I are working really hard

The Elders of Padre Bernardo

to help all the people we have progress and make decisions in what they need to with their lives. We have so many people we are working with that there isn’t enough time in the day to do all that we want and need to. I am so grateful for the time I have to work here and the miracles I am seeing every day. The church is truly a church of miracles and love. I have loved being here and helping people get to know a church unlike any other church that exists here, I am proud to be a representative of the Church of Jesus Christ!

We met a couple this week that are really intelligent and have lots of questions for us! One thing that they said really made me happy and confirmed to me that we are doing the right kind of work here. A couple of weeks ago I said that we decided to change our way of working from just teaching and searching for the people who are ready to hear to searching for opportunities to serve and help and be friends with everyone. This couple told us that everyone speaks super well about us. She works in the government building helping families and she said that LOTS of people pass by there and mention us. Everyone says that they are really liking our visits and that we are so different, dignified but cool. There is another religion here that does the same type of missionary work here that NOBODY likes and at first everyone thought we were from that church but now people know the difference. That was the goal, to put a good name out there for the church!

We helped a family move from one house to another and we were able to ride in the back of the truck on top of all the stuff and we felt like celebrities because in 6 weeks we have gotten to know A WHOLE LOT of people and as we were driving through the little city on top of a giant truck, we were waving and talking to a ton of people on the street. Another great thing about knowing lots of people in the city is that we get rides a whole lot. Even people who don’t want anything to do with the church but who we have visited give us rides. That’s a huge blessing because this city has a whole bunch of hills that kill us when we have to climb them during the afternoon in the hot sun. Each night we come home with some kind of fruit or food that people give us and we are starting to eat meals and have BBQ´s with people here in the city! But it’s not all just fun and games; we are working a ton but having even more fun doing it!

Attendance at church is growing, very slowly but its growing! We are excited because there are a lot of people that are attending every week. They just need to resolve some problems before they can be baptized but we are so excited because when the first baptism happens here, they will just come and come and come! Padre Bernardo is on the edge of the cliff, just needing a little nudge and this city will start to fly! Thanks for all the prayers and Love! The Lords hand is in this work and I am grateful I have the chance to participate!

Lots of Love,

Elder Clark

“Stay in the Boat” Matthew 8:23-27

May 18, 2015

Baking Sweet Rolls and Cheese Bread

Wow, what a week. This week passed by SO fast but when I think about last Monday, it seems like almost a month ago. Time is literally playing with my head. We started the week with a little trip. We had to head into the city for a Zone Meeting and we spent almost the whole day Tuesday traveling. Our meeting was productive but it about killed us with the traveling. I don’t know why but it seems like the days that we have to travel and I don’t work very much are the days that I become most tired on my mission. There something about traveling on the bus that just drains your energy.

Speaking of draining energy. Man oh man. We started English classes this week for anyone who
wants to learn. Elder Kesler and I are the Americans who give the class. I don’t know how but I got stuck with the children 8 years old to 12 years old. (Think of the funniest class ever.) We have been doing the classes for two weeks and we only do them two times a week. Each Wed. and Sat. and we already have a ton of people coming. One day I think I had about 30 children in my classroom. It was pretty hard to keep control. But, the cool thing is they are actually learning! We play lots games and they are learning pretty fast. It is super funny too because we walk in the streets the children yell “Hey teacher! Hey guys, that is my English teacher!” “TEACHER!” There is one kid who wanted to teach everyone the word teacher so that they could call me teacher, but the thing is all the kids remembered the word as TIO (TCHEE-O) which is the word for Uncle in Portuguese. So during class, when the young ones have a question they yell “Tio! Tio!” (Uncle, Uncle) I can’t help but to laugh. Oh what an adventure it is! There was a little miracle that happened. A kid brought his deaf brother to class Saturday and we started to play a game where I yell out a color in English and the kids have to find the color on the board. Not wanting to be left out the small deaf boy stood in line, but also not wanting to play because he can’t hear when I yell the words, he always let the next kid go in front of him. (I don’t know if I have already told you but we are teaching a deaf young woman and she is teaching us sign language.) I got his attention and started to sign the colors that I would choose. He became super excited and started to participate and even won many times! I was very happy I was able to help him have a good experience and I am so grateful for the opportunities God gives us to help other people, even in the most simple ways!

Stake Center

We spent this whole week preparing for our stake conference that happened this weekend. We were super stressed because it was to happen far away, like everything is from us. It was a huge challenge and we were all super stressed because it seemed like we were going to have a wasted Sunday without church here. But, that was the miracle. It was one of the best Sundays of my mission! We were able to get a Bus to take people to the conference, organized with the stake to have food after the conference before our trip home and confirmed investigators to take the journey with us. The stake center for our stake is one of the biggest and most beautiful church buildings I have ever seen. We wanted a whole lot of people to go with us to see a church building and how the church really is a worldwide, super organized church. We took about 30 people with us and had one of the best, most spiritual conferences I have been too. The giant church was FULL of people. Everyone is excited to see Padre Bernardo grow and so when we arrived, many people came to greet us, and to help direct everyone. Our investigators from a small town without one big building were all eyes as we entered the beautiful church building, full of happy, shining people in shirts, ties and skirts. The talks and messages of the conference were amazing, each person was very, very inspired! The theme of the conference was “Stay in the Boat.” Everyone talked about how we need to have courage to follow Christ! Just to wrap it up, everything went perfect. Nobody wanted to leave to come back home. I can’t even describe all the miracles and tender mercies the Lord helped us with! I don’t think I will ever forget this stake conference.

Elders and a cow

I am so grateful for my mission and everyone that I have met. I am so excited for Padre Bernardo the upcoming weeks! I think the conference lit a fire in us, the stake and our investigators! Thank you so much for your prayers and support! I love you all!

Elder Samuel Clark